My rating: 3/5
Two women with two devastating secrets cross paths in a genial bookstore. As they get to know one another, their skepticism of each other grows, while their secrets threaten to surface and expose their pain and vulnerabilities. A charming story of hope, healing, and forgiveness, The Stories We Carry by Robin W. Pearson will deepen your appreciation of books and the community it fosters.
Glory Pryor, the spunky owner of By the Book bookstore, has an immense love for her books and her husband, Eli Pryor. At sixty-four-years-old, she does not live a laggard lifestyle. She enjoys the abundance of her life, filled with a successfully bustling business to manage, and a charismatic husband to love. However, as much as she appreciates the blessings of her life, she remains burdened by a regret from her past, that leaves her stifling towards emotional healing and growth. The guilt from her past leaves her faithless and with a hardened heart towards God. When an unexpectant visitor arrives at her bookstore, she will be faced with releasing the burdens from her past and accepting the promise of her future.
Adelle Simonette is a new resident in town. As a recent widow and newly single parent to her young, spirited son, Bennett, she has much change to adjust to in her life. Although she attempts to personify herself as an innocent recent widow who happened to stumble upon By the Book bookshop, she has a malicious plan with the intent to enact vengeance. The weight of bitterness and grief she carries prevents forgiveness and healing. It is not until she surrenders to the love and will of the Lord, as well as the kindness of the community, that she experiences liberation and redemption.
The Stories We Carry is a lovely novel with a modern setting in the fictional small town of Gilmore, North Carolina. The story has an overall inspiring message of hope, with a likable diverse cast of characters. The plot includes encouraging Christian faith content with the incorporation of scriptures mentioned throughout the storyline. As a reader, I loved that this was a bookish story, with the primary setting in a bookstore and the main characters being lovers of books and reading. There were mentions of book titles and authors that I enjoyed as well. Although this was an inspiring novel, there were aspects of the story that seemed overly prolonged. This stifled the pacing of the novel, which made me lose interest in the storyline at times. Overall, this is a nice story with clean, faith-based content.
With gratitude, I received a digital advanced reader copy of this novel from Tyndale House Publishers via NetGalley. The opinions in this review are unbiased and my own.
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